What not to sweep under rugs

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A convicted murderer's claims that his confession resulted from torture by law enforcement nearly always sounds like an old, desperate song to police interrogators.

But in recent years we have learned of too many proven cases for anyone to lightly dismiss such claims. Some that continue to haunt this city revolve around former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his detectives in their South Side police station in the 1980s.

It appears the courts now are responding more pointedly the long-standing torture claims of a handful of Death Row inmates and others serving life sentences. They allege that detectives used beatings, electric shock, death threats and choking to extract statements of guilt.

The Tribune reported last week that Cook County State's Atty. Dick Devine has begun to discuss deals with a handful of these Death Row inmates. In exchange for their dropping all claims of torture and pleading guilty, they could have a chance at early freedom.

How breathtakingly irresponsible. If these men are innocent, they are innocent. If they are guilty and concocting tales about false confessions, they should serve full sentences. What is important is that their allegations--and all the Burge-related allegations--are fully aired and investigated, bearing in mind that police brutality is exceedingly difficult to prove.

Devine may try to wish this explosive chapter in Chicago police history away. But doing so by sweeping such notorious allegations under the rug does nothing but continue suspicion.

There is good reason to take the Burge-related claims of brutality seriously. The Chicago Police Board fired Burge in 1993 for torturing a murder suspect.

U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur wrote that Burge "and many officers working under him regularly engaged in the physical abuse and torture of prisoners to extract confessions."

Devine has other compelling reasons to call for a sweeping, independent investigation of these claims, given his personal and political conflicts. He once briefly appeared in court with Burge because his law firm defended him. Mayor Richard Daley was state's attorney during Burge's tenure; Devine was Daley's first assistant.

Toronto launched a two-year investigation after mistakes in one case at Canada's premier center for forensic science led to the wrongful conviction of a man for murder. Recommendations from that report were turned into policy.

Oklahoma City did the same after police chemist Joyce Gilchrist was alleged to have given false or misleading testimony on hundreds of criminal cases.

So did Los Angeles after the Rampart Division scandal led to investigations of about 70 police officers.

For the sake of his own integrity--and, for that matter, the reputations of the vast majority of officers still trying to live down the Burge legacy--Devine himself should follow suit.